Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Cooped up!

When the temps really dip I worry about the chickens but so far the temperature inside the coop has been steadily 15-20 degrees warmer than the outside temperature. This morning the outside temperature was hovering around 0 and the wind chill was -12. Inside the coop it was a toasty 23. Chickens handle cold weather better than hot, humid weather. (me too).

The Max temperature was from yesterday afternoon. The thermometer resets itself every 24 hours.

What a difference from a week ago when it was 53 degrees outside and I was able to get out on my bike...in JANUARY!

A chickens body temperature is 107 degrees and when it gets cold they huddle together and puff up their feathers to hold more of that heat in. They look so cute and fluffy like that. Here Buffy and Riley are demonstrating that heat trapping technique.

They had very little desire to venture out into the run this morning. They were only interested in the warm oatmeal and apples that I put out there for breakfast. Amelia, one of our Easter Eggers, refused to venture out at all. I've noticed that the EE's do not seem to do as well with the winter. We've had no green eggs for a couple weeks now. Not sure if it's a light thing or a cold thing. Although we've had a really mild winter so far.

As soon as that was gobbled up they were back inside. Since the girls are cooped up today by choice I thought I'd introduce the second new toy. A ball that releases treats as it's pecked at and rolled around by the chickens. I filled it with scratch (cracked corn, oats and other grains and seeds) and dried mealworms. Again they were curious but not as thrilled as I had hoped. They did a lot of looking and only a few were brave enough to actually peck at it.

Again another video.

Listen for the crow outside about 8 seconds into the video and see how they're ears perk up. It's funny.